Bend to Yosemite

If you come in on US 395 you will be on the east side of Yosemite. Then you have to enter the park on the Tioga Pass Road. Beautiful but very mountainous route. If you are new to driving a big rig you might want to consider your route carefully. Have a great trip.

Thanks. Noted! We want to enter on the west side.

We drove our 32' TT in from the West side and found plenty of very tight switch backs in one specific section before Groveland. Nice, new, wide roads. Still, they required very slow speed and caution.

We drove Tioga pass with only the SUV (it had finally opened just 1 day prior to our arrival...what timing) and while elevation was much higher with I did not find the roads any more difficult. And the drive was dramatically more gorgeous.

It's worth asking more people who have driven it with large RV's, but I personally did not feel it was any worse than entering/exiting on 120 from the West. Dare I say I would actually prefer entering/exiting from the East side???

Great ride. take your time --- enjoy.

Barneymissy wrote:
We're new to RV'ing and have a 40' class A - looking for an easy, but interesting route from bend, Oregon to just outside Yosemite. What do you think of 395 or ...?

My choice would be 97,I-5,Sacreamento, 99, I-40 to Yosemite.

Taking 395 means you will have to take a mountain pass to take west to Yosemite. Most of the passes are RV difficult to impossible :(

Or you could take 395 south to Hwy. 58 to Bakersfield at hwy. 99 then go north to hwy. 140. A little longer route but a pretty scenic drive and RV friendly.

The 395 route is OK but one thing to consider is the mileage. It's a long drive from Tioga Pass entrance station to the Valley, about 60 miles or more if I remember correctly, also the speed limit is 45mph all the way. I love the drive, it's beautiful for sure, but if time is a factor you may want to consider this.
Bill

Just an FYI the Detweiler Fire has closed hwy 140 into Yosemite and the town of Mariposa has been evacuated.

http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/1672

Thanks all. Nixing 395. Sounds like 97 out of Medford south to I-5 south to Sacramento, then 99 and I-40 to Yosemite. And thanks for the heads up on the fire. We'll keep an eye on that - Not leaving until early September.

I meant "Bend" not Medford.....

Barneymissy wrote:
Thanks all. Nixing 395. Sounds like 97 out of Medford south to I-5 south to Sacramento, then 99 and I-40 to Yosemite. And thanks for the heads up on the fire. We'll keep an eye on that - Not leaving until early September.

It's State Highway 140, not I-40. Are you planning on camping outside the park and taking the toad in? And as already pointed out, the fire up there has everything messed up right now and it's predicted to last several more weeks. Also, the waterfalls are still running full and may be all summer, but the drawback to that is every body and their brother goes up there on weekends and it is packed! We tried to go up just to drive over Tioga for the day, and the line at the 120 gate was over three miles long. I turned around and didn't go in. They say it's even pretty crowded during the week, but you should at least be able to get in. The earliest in the morning you can get to the gate the better.